Signing up to Sherwood Dungeon really couldn't be quicker or easier. Choose a handle in the welcome screen and that's it-- no personal info, no downloads, no validation emails or anything of the sort. The avatar sets are really simple-- there are only four basics. There's human man, a human female, an imposing-looking armored knight and a skeleton warrior-- though there is some customizability in the color of the tunics, or the type of armor the knight wears. You can re-make your avatar's appearance on every entry into Sherwood Dungeon, though the handle you choose remains your key to the experience and goods you've accumulated in the game.

New arrivals appear in a wooded area outside a castle. Though the 3d models are not particularly fancy, they're still vividly rendered, with the animations done particularly well considering it's a completely free Shockwave game. A brief intro screen acclimates you to the bare-bones control scheme-- arrow keys move around, the Ctrl key attacks, and Ctrl+Shift blocks, and that's really about it, aside from clicking to interact with NPCs or to view and equip inventory and status items via a simple icon-based menu in the screen bottom.

It's fortunate that the control scheme is so easy to master, because newbies won't have much time to get acclimated. The area's swarming with huge red and green spiders, for one thing, and knee-high ruby swordsmen will also antagonize you. Don't be surprised if a fellow adventurer sets on you immediately, too-- there are no PvP (player-versus-player) rules in Sherwood, and anything that moves is fair game. Approaching someone for public chat is as likely to get you gutted as greeted!

Fighting the spiders forms the basic meat-and-milk of a new adventurer's initial experience; defeating them results in experience gains, stat boosts and, occasionally, dropped items. Your enemies will be taking a chunk out of your hit points, measured via a red gauge displayed prominently in the screen's upper-left hand corner. When things are looking grim, though, you can easily escape by running away-- your hit points will gradually regenerate. And even if you're killed, you simply reappear in the main area, without apparent penalty.

Investigating the main field further, a castle appears; inside is a very impressively modeled silver dragon statue, a merchant and an informative guard. You'll also find Lady Marian herself, who will give you your first quest. There are also shimmering teleport windows in the area which will take you to more challenging battle areas, even advising you of the appropriate level you should be to take the fiends on.

You can earn gold through selling your battle spoils to one of the merchants, and upgrade your equipment by buying it or earning it from monsters. The leveling curve is not so steep that it loses its entertainment value, and the promise of new worlds to explore keeps the experience lively. It doesn't seem that Sherwood Dungeon has an auto logout-- simply close the window and re-enter your handle on your next visit to reappear where you left off.